chiller newbie questions (1 Viewer)

[toefu]

I recently purchased a chiller, and am in the process of getting the water pumps for it. But i had a few maxi jet 1200 (300gph) which i know is not enough flow for it, but tried it out anyways. Well, the chiller seems to be turning on and off every minute or 2.

I tested the setup out on a 5 gallon tank, and the chiller cooled it down to 65 degree easy (test only of course) but on my 55 with halides on, the chiller seems to just constantly turn on and off.

Is it because:

1) there is not enough flow, so the coils in the chiller are already cold enough, which is why the chiller does not just stay on?

2) probably some kind of electrical issue?

ps: my controller for it seems to be working properly, cause it reads the temps and i know it tells the chiller to turn on..

 

[spham]

What kind of chiller is it? What temp did you set the chiller to? What was your tank temp before you install the chiller? What kind of controller and what settings?

 

[Guest]

Where are you pumping the water from to go to the chiller, and where are you returning the chilled water to? Short cycling like this can occur when you return your chiller water to the sump (and also pull it from there). The chiller cools the water in the sump quicker than it is being turned over with tank water, so it shuts off, then more tank water gets mixed in and it turns on, etc. Ideally, you should have the chiller draw from the sump and output to the main tank.

I've played around with different flow rates on my chiller and haven't noticed a lot of difference. In theory, it doesn't matter, as long as you are within the minimum and maximum flow specs for the chiller. Say your chiller is rated at 300-600 gph (just what mine happens to be). If you are pumping at 600 gph, you might get a 1F drop across the coil. If you decrease the flow to 300 gph, you will double the contact time (maybe get a 2F drop), BUT you are only circulating half as much water, so it evens out.

BTW, I have seen people on RC use Maxijets to feed smaller chillers with no problems. The main thing to make sure is that you have enough flow to keep the coil from freezing up.